pipkrake

P3I1P3K5R1A1K5E1

noun

Needle ice; ice structures formed when the air temperature is below 0℃ and the soil is not.

OriginSwedish pipkrake →
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Meanings

nounpipkrake (countable and uncountable, plural pipkrakes)

plural pipkrakes

  1. countableuncountableNeedle ice; ice structures formed when the air temperature is below 0℃ and the soil is not.
    1 more example

    The most widespread and familiar example of this process is that associated with the growth of needle ice or pipkrake (Figure 5.15), needles of clear ice commonly exceeding 5 cm in length. Growth of pipkrake is favoured by supercooling of the soil in conditions of marked radiative heat loss from the surface […]

    1979, E. Derbyshire, Geomorphological Processes, Routledge, →ISBN, page 208

Origin

  1. Swedishpipkrake
  2. Englishpipkrake

From Swedish pipkrake, from pip (“tube”) + krake (“thin, fine, weak”), coined by Swedish botanist Henrik Hesselman in 1907.

More words from Swedish

Full word history & related roots →
Cite this entry
APA

pipkrake. (n.d.). In WatkinsX Dictionary. Retrieved November 2, 2026, from https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pipkrake

MLA

“pipkrake.” WatkinsX Dictionary, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pipkrake. Accessed November 2, 2026.

Chicago

WatkinsX Dictionary, s.v. “pipkrake,” accessed November 2, 2026, https://dictionary.watkinsx.com/word/pipkrake.

Source: pipkrake on Wiktionary, CC BY-SA 4.0.